


Late for a Very Important Date

by Neverever



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Swap, Captain Americat - Freeform, Earth-8311, First Dates, Getting Together, Iron Mouse - Freeform, M/M, Multiverse, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29113371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: It's routine mission for the Avengers Team until Tony finds a mystery box. Suddenly, instead of Iron Man, there is Iron Mouse. Who is very desperate to get back home for a very important deadline.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 115
Collections: Marvel Reverse Big Bang 2020





	Late for a Very Important Date

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Team Up! [ART]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29112945) by [Fluffypanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffypanda/pseuds/Fluffypanda). 



> Written for Fluffypanda's very adorable and cute art! I really hope you like the story!
> 
> And big thanks to arms_plutonic for the beta work.

The Avengers had a list and Steve was checking each HYDRA cell the Avengers eliminated right off it.

Today wasn’t any different.

The team had rolled into a remote ranch outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming just before dawn. A rogue ex-SHIELD HYDRA organization had set up a weapons lab. They had come on the Avengers radar when they began advertising their wares on the dark web. 

The raid took barely an hour to complete. Steve was cooling his heels waiting for law enforcement to show up. Next to him, Tony was scanning the lab building for anything they might have missed.

“Nice to have you back, Tony,” Steve said. “Good work corralling the missiles.”

Clearly only half listening to Steve, Tony narrowed his eyes as he studied the hologram projecting from his forearm. “Huh, yeah, thanks.”

Steve smiled. He’d missed Tony more than he expected when Tony stepped down. But a few months ago, Tony had shown up at the compound with a suitcase, fancy electric car and a trunk full of prototypes. He didn’t talk about it, but all the gossip sites told the tale of the Potts and Stark breakup. Steve didn’t care about that and he didn’t ask questions. He did care about Tony being on the team, however. And was rapidly getting worried about Tony’s intense staring.

“I don’t get it,” Tony muttered under his breath.

Steve straightened and stopped pulling off his gloves. “What?” 

“We missed something. Back there. One of the labs.” He turned off the hologram and flipped down the faceplate.

The rest of the team was scattered throughout the complex. “Widow, Falcon --”

“Nah, the invite is for a two-man party,” Tony said. Steve shot him an inquiring look. “It’s just faster.”

The lab Tony wanted to check out was off a stairwell on the second floor. They stepped through the door. Tony popped the hologram up again. He glanced around. “Hidden door?” he suggested.

“Why would there be a hidden door?” 

Tony shrugged. “Easiest explanation for the unknown energy signature. That I can’t find the source for.”

“What’s this box over here?” Steve said. He’d been in this room earlier. He would have remembered seeing that suspicious box when he did a sweep of the room since it covered half the table and was emitting bleeping noises and the occasional flash of light. 

“That’s weird,” Tony said. He aimed a scanning beam at the box. “This doesn’t look harmless at all, but I can’t pick up anything on my scanners about it at all. No energy, no waves, nothing.”

“But is it HYDRA?”

“AIM? Maybe? Whatever it is, it’s advanced tech --- woah, step back, Cap.” Tony pushed Steve out of the way of a ray of light coming from the black box.

Steve blinked once and Tony was gone. The light ray had hit him front and center. He was there and then he was gone. 

Steve blinked again and Tony was back.

Except now Tony was a small mouse in Iron Man armor.

Now, Steve had seen his fair share of crazy stuff in his life and then some. He waited a second, then another second, then a minute, somehow expecting that the mouse in front of him was a delusion of some sort.

But Steve was very clear-headed and hadn’t suffered a concussion or any other injury except for a couple of bruises from being shoved into a wall. 

The mouse was still there. Standing in the armor, checking a hologram scan. The exact same attitude and energy Tony had. The exact same pose as human Tony.

Had Tony turned into a mouse?

The faceplace flipped up. Steve didn’t know until that moment mice could exasperatedly sigh. The mouse narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the room. “I don’t have time for this nonsense,” he declared, as he scrunched his nose.

Steve was impressed at how annoyed Iron Mouse was. 

“Not again,” the mouse finally said. “Look, I’m assuming that you are some version of Captain Americat, and the Scavengers have been around the block on this multiverse thing before. I don’t have the better part of a week to hang around here. I need to be back in my universe by 6 pm tomorrow.”

“It’s 10 am in Wyoming.”

Iron Mouse threw up his paws. “What we waiting for? Snap, snap, get on the quinjet.” The faceplate slammed shut as he pushed at Steve to get moving. “Wait, you need to bring that with us,” Iron Mouse said pointedly.

Steve scooped up the Mystery Box as ordered and followed Iron Mouse.

~~~~~

Disoriented and dizzy, Tony wanted to lay prone on the floor for the next several days. Not a good look in front of Steve. But he wasn’t entirely sure that his stomach was committed to staying in place just yet.

Steve was probably getting him water and a protein bar.

Good ol’ Steve, always looking out for a teammate. Maybe if he looked miserable enough, Steve might put a cold compress on his forehead, which meant the likelihood of Steve touching him. These days, Tony lived for even the slightest touch from Steve.

What was wrong with him? He didn’t like being handed things, but the minute Steve pushed over one of those ridiculous paper files they rescued from the ruins of SHIELD, Tony picked it up like a Christmas present.

Then he heard more than felt something poking him, with a tapping sound of metal on metal. 

“FRIDAY?”

“You are being poked with a stick, Boss.”

What an odd and unpleasant thing for Steve to do.

“Squawkeye?” a commanding voice asked.

“Looks like Iron Mouse, sounds like Iron Mouse. Missing the ears.”

Something was seriously seriously wrong here. Tony pushed himself up and lifted the faceplate.

Great, the whole team was here. Not so great, was that they all had been turned into animals. Steve was a cat, Hawkeye a chicken, Thor an exceedingly large dog. More like animals crossed with people -- standing and walking like people but with fur, ears, and tails. 

“What in hell is going on?” He tried to stand up, but all his limbs felt liquid and he couldn’t pull himself together.

“I would suggest that you continue to lie down, until you’ve adjusted to this universe,” a dog sitting next to him said. The dog wore an outfit very similar to Wanda’s. 

“What is going on?” Tony repeated. He stared up at the ceiling that appeared to vibrate.

“Multiverse adjustments,” a rabbit said thoughtfully.

Tony swiveled his armor towards the brown rabbit, who was wearing a pair of ripped purple pants. His jaw dropped, realizing this had to be Bruce. “Bruce?”

“Dr. Bruce Bunny, at your service,” Bruce said. 

“What happened to everyone? One minute, we’re cleaning up a HYDRA lab and next everyone has been turned into farm animals.”

“Correction, we are where we’re supposed to be and you’re from a different universe,” Bruce Bunny said. 

“Okayyyyyyy,” Tony replied. His right temple started throbbing. “Is that why I can’t move?”

“We’ve put some Pym Particles on you so you can fit into our universe. You seem to come from a universe of giants.”

Tony was quick on the uptake and he was not going to let Scott ever forget that somewhere there was a version of him as an ant.

“We need to get Iron Mouse back,” Cap said.

By now, Tony felt much better and was able to stand up. The Pym particles had put him at a height where he could see the Captain eye-to-eye. “Iron Mouse?”

“I am Captain Americat,” Cap said. “That is Squawkeye, Scarlet Pooch, --”

“Thrr, Dog of Thunder,” boomed Thrr.

“I am Iron Man,” Tony replied. “I can guess how this is going to go -- Iron Mouse and I switched places, you want your Iron Man -- Iron Mouse back and I want to go back home, and bing bang boom, we make it happen.”

“Yes. And we have to do that before 6 pm tomorrow,” Captain Americat asserted.

“I’m sure we can do that,” Bruce said. His paw adjusted the glasses perched on his pink bunny nose.

“Scavengers, move out,” Cap said.

“This involves a workshop, right?” Tony said to Bruce and Wanda.

Wanda nodded. “Is there anything you need to bring with you?”

Tony looked around the lab. “I don’t see the blinking box --”

“We found this,” Wanda replied, holding up a thick flat black disk with lights along the edge.

“Hmmm, do you think --?” Tony started.

Bruce finished, “A portal? Possible. Similar to what we’ve seen before.”

~~~~~

Steve was preoccupied on the ride back to the Avengers Compound with debriefing the FBI and Interpol about the results of the raid and filling out paperwork about the recovered SHIELD tech. Riding shotgun to Clint, he snuck a look back into the main cabin. Mouse Tony was perched on the seat next to Bruce typing on a tablet balanced on a table.

Clint exchanged a look with Steve. “If it wasn’t for the ears, I don’t think I could tell the difference between the Mouse and our Tony. That’s unsettling and weird.”

“He’s very anxious about that deadline,” Steve replied. Whatever was going on with Iron Mouse, Steve wanted to help the little guy. 

“Do we know what that is? I mean, we can’t totally trust that he’s on the up and up.”

Steve turned back to his laptop. “He’s good. We’ll get him home. We need to get our Tony back too.”

Clint snorted. “Steve Rogers, president of the Tony Stark Fan Club, whether Tony’s a man or a mouse.”

“Tony is a major asset to the team, we work better with him,” Steve replied automatically.

“Riiiiighhttttt.”

“Hey, how much longer is it before we get to New Yolk?” Mouse Tony piped up from the back.

“New York?” Steve asked.

“Fine, if that’s what you call it here.”

“Less than two hours.”

Mouse Tony sighed deeply, lifting his tiny shoulders and dropping them. “I need to get back home,” Iron Mouse said. “I’ve got an important date.”

“We’ll help you,” Steve promised.

~~~~~

As soon as the Scavengers entered New Yolk (!) airspace, Tony twigged on why they needed to give him the Pym Particles. In his natural state he would have been Giant-man in the pint-sized Zootopia.

Captain Americat showed him Iron Mouse’s workshop. “I hope this works?” he asked.

Tony set his helmet down as he surveyed his options. “What’s the deal with 6 pm tomorrow? Expecting something bad going down?”

Cap pulled down his cowl, revealing that he was a large orange tabby. “We need Iron Mouse back by then.” He scowled. 

“Sometimes sorting out multiverse transference takes longer,” Bruce added. “We could call in Mooster Fantastic, Steve?”

“The Fantastic Fur are off in the Negative Zone. Tony wouldn’t be happy if we called them.” Cat Steve had a fond look on his face. “Especially if this was a routine --”

“Crossing of the streams?” Tony volunteered. He’d have to rig up a few tools but he could make this work. Solving the problem of getting back home would definitely take his mind off the over-all weirdness of the situation. If he stayed in the workshop, he worked the problem and he wouldn’t ask any of the thousands of questions he had about how this whole place worked.

Who knew that Disney films would be necessary research for his superhero life?

“You could call it that,” Bruce said cheerfully. He hopped up onto a chair built for his bunny body. “This is the part that determines whether returning you back is going to be easy or not -- it’s a matter of finding if it was a portal that brought you here or if there was a triggering mechanism.”

Tony said, “It was a black box with lights and bells. FRIDAY, show the bunny a picture.”

“Wait -- you can contact your AI from your universe?”

“Yes -- wait, I shouldn’t be able to do that. Unless -- I have an idea --”

Cap Cat coughed politely behind them. 

“Steve, we’re good,” Bunny Bruce said. “We’ll get Tony back.”

“Then, um, I’ll leave you to it,” he said. “Send me updates.”

“Will do.”

~~~~~

“Who is this important date with?” Avenger Sam asked.

Nose twitching, Mouse Tony didn’t look away from his schematics on the monitor that dwarfed him. He’d already built a small, mouse-sized keyboard for the computers, because Tony was Tony in any universe. He jogged over to the Mystery Box and then back to his schematics.

“I’ve got 24 hours,” Mouse Tony stated. “I’ve got reservations I don’t want to cancel. You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to get them.”

Clint arrived and gave coffee to Sam and Steve. “How is it going?” 

“Like we’re watching Tony,” Steve said fondly. 

Mouse Tony held out a paw towards the coffee. 

“Do we have a cup small enough?” Clint asked.

Steve took out the toy mug he had nearby and poured some of his coffee into it. He set it down on the toy table next to Tony. Then he scooped up the other coffee mugs.

Sam arched an eyebrow. “Where did he get the other mugs?” Sam asked. 

“Steve,” Bruce said as he scrambled out from behind a large tool chest.

“What?”

“No, Steve is the source of the cups, chairs and tables.”

Steve had correctly surmised that all Tonys in all universes had a coffee addiction. He didn’t feel that Mouse Tony should suffer because they didn’t have appropriately sized mugs around. So a quick trip to a local toy store got Mouse Tony all the coffee mugs he could need and a few other necessities. He was prepared to break out the bed when Mouse Tony started nodding.

“Do other universes have to deal with this too?” Sam asked Clint cryptically.

Ignoring Sam’s comment, Steve suggested, “We should let them work.”

~~~~~

“Wait, you’re telling me that his name is Steve Mouser?” Tony asked bunny Bruce. 

Bruce nodded. 

Steven Mouser. That was Captain Americat’s name. If he didn’t know better, Tony would have thought he’d died and gone to Pun Hell.

Tony drank down an entire mug of coffee. His only excuse for going through a mug in a gulp was that the mugs were small.

They were four hours into diagnosing the problem. Bruce’s already extensive experience with multiverse crossovers hadn’t helped as much as Bruce promised. 

At least, Iron Mouse’s workshop was set up in a very similar manner to his own. Except for the mouse-sized equipment.

“Cap seems keen on getting your Tony back before the deadline,” Tony said as he scanned the rest test data from the Mystery Disk. “A bit arbitrary, if you ask me.”

“It’s an important day for him and Tony,” Bunny Bruce replied. “Steve’s not supposed to know the details - Tony’s been planning it for a week at least. They had to postpone a few times already, last time it was because of Galactypus.”

“Galactypus,” Tony stated flatly.

“It’s always something -- Kangaroo the Conqueror, the Bee-yonder, Ducktor Doom. You know, the usual.”

Not that he was having an existential crisis with each new name, but still -- Tony would have to seriously reconsider his nickname system once he got back home.

The workshop doors whooshed open. “Hey, Tones,” a familiar voice said behind Tony.

Tony knew immediately who it was. He spun around on his chair to face War Machine. Or this world’s version -- large, armored, and antlered.

“Hart Machine,” Tony said to Bruce. Bruce offered a paw for a high-five. 

All things considered, it could have been worse, Hart Machine Rhodey could have been a warthog. Or a chicken -- he could have been a Rhode Island red chicken. Could he ever call his Rhodey “platypus” again without snickering?

“What’s going on, Banner?” Deer Rhodey asked as the helmet peeled away from his head and snout. “Where’s Tony?”

“Ummm, this Tony is a multiverse visitor and our Tony is wherever he came from,” Bruce sort of explained.

“Oh, I stopped by to see how he was doing before the big day. You’ll be able to get him back, right?” Rhodey said to Bruce.

“It would be nice to know what’s going on sometime, whenever you feel like explaining it,” Tony said with a smile. “I mean, we Tonies have to stick together.”

Bruce twitched his nose. “Then you already know what’s at stake here. The only thing is -- did our disk cause the crossover or did your box?”

Tony groaned silently as neither Bruce or Rhodey appeared to be close to telling him anything at all.

~~~~~

“This important date?” Steve prompted. “Does it have to do with how you got here?”

He fervently hoped that they would recover their own Tony soon. He had a distinct preference for his version of Iron Man.

Mouse Tony pushed his black hair out of his blue eyes. And Steve was struck again by how closely the mouse mirrored his own Tony’s gestures and expressions. Made him miss Tony a lot, considering that Steve had recently begun to daydream about running his fingers through Tony’s unruly hair. 

Slumping and dejected, Tony sat down on his tiny stool. “I’ve been planning this big date to end all dates, you know. A super special guy, deserves all the best.”

Steve pulled over one of Tony’s workshop stools, spun the seat down so he was more on a level with Mouse Tony. “Okay. Big Date.”

“First official date. Steve --” Tony’s face lit up when he said the name. “He’s great. He’s smart, kind, and gorgeous. I’m lucky, the luckiest mouse in the whole world that he said yes, and not to some coffee date either. I’d been building up the courage for over a year to ask. We were fighting Baron Zebro and Cap nearly got smushed. I just blurted it out and he said yes.”

“Cap?”

“Captain Americat, of course.”

Steve didn’t know what confused him more -- the idea that a mouse would be dating a cat (he had no idea how that would work) or that the alternate universe version of him and Tony were about to go on a date of their dreams.

He’d ferociously suppressed all romantic thoughts about Tony once he found out that Tony was in a serious relationship with Pepper. Since Tony had returned to the team, he’d admittedly gone sweet about Tony. But a thousand horses couldn’t drag that secret out of him.

Although, maybe a thousand horses had done that to Captain Americat.

“I thought if I were an animal version of myself, I would be a dog,” Steve replied.

Mouse Tony arched an eyebrow. “You’ve thought about it?”

“Trips on the quinjet can be long. We talk about a lot of things,” Steve replied.

“My Steve is a journalist when he’s not fighting with the Scavengers -- he works for the Daily Beagle --” 

Steve pondered a bit as he pieced together that Mouse Tony’s world very much ran on puns. Tony must be having a field day with the Scavengers. “And?”

“We’ve had to cancel and reschedule -- but this time, we were really going to finally go on that date. I’ve got it all planned out --” Mouse Tony threw up a paw. “Then this happens.”

“If your Steve is like me, if this falls through, he’d be happy to go anywhere with you on a date,” Steve said carefully. It’s not like anyone ever asked Steve ‘the Clueless’ for romantic advice.

“Huh.” Mouse Tony tapped his paw on his little chin as he pondered Steve’s advice. Then he smiled for the first time since he arrived. “I could try that. But seriously, the food at Ratatouille is to die for.”

“I’m sure it is.”

“You know what it’s like -- you have reservations at your and Tony’s favorite restaurant.”

“Tony and I don’t have one --”

“Really? That’s a surprise.” Mouse Tony frowned slightly. “Wait -- you guys aren’t dating yet, are you? I haven’t met a Steve and Tony who weren’t dating or married or pining. Are you pining? Because that sucks, and you just should ask Tony out. Get it over with. You have no idea how happy I’ve been since I asked Steve.”

Steve froze in place. Mouse Tony had told them from the start that the Scavengers had met their multiverse alternatives a few times. But this tidbit of information about other Steves and Tonies shocked Steve.

He had vague romantic thoughts towards Tony, a hidden, unspoken even to himself hope that Tony might be open to considering a lonely supersoldier. 

Mouse Tony groaned. “Oh, it’s worse, isn’t it? You guys don’t even know that you’re both more than interested.”

“I wouldn’t say that --”

The mouse then put a paw on Steve’s hand. “Don’t waste time. Ask him out. You’ll be glad you did. Save yourself the misery of pining, it’s not worth it and it’s better to be happy. If your Tony is like me, I know you’ll both be over the moon.”

Steve stayed up late in the workshop in case he was needed until Bruce mercifully sent him to bed. Not that Steve wanted to go to bed. Thoughts about Tony were racing and chasing each other through his head until he was just worn out from thinking. 

All the thoughts came flooding in while Steve sat quietly on his own eating his oatmeal, bananas and coffee. He racked his memories, recalling each moment he’d spent with Tony, picking apart each word and gesture, wondering if it all added up to Tony feeling the same way Steve did.

Mouse Tony seemed so confident. He was just like Tony, from the top of his round ears to the tip of his tail. 

A few meaningful words here and there, a preference for Tony’s company -- that didn’t mean that Tony had feelings for Steve, did it? Or thought of Steve as potentially more than a great friend?

Whatever he ended up doing, he couldn’t start with ‘the multiverse told me to do it.’

Later, Steve was in the middle of the weirdest call in his life explaining to Rhodey why Tony wasn’t answering his phone. The image of Mouse Tony in the armor undersuit pulling a tiny phone out of his pocket was something else.

Natasha knocked on the door frame to get Steve’s attention. “There’s been a breakthrough,” she explained.

“Colonel, I’ll have Tony call you when he’s back,” Steve explained before he hung up. “What kind of breakthrough?”

They walked fast towards Tony’s workshop. “I stopped by first thing this morning -- there was a lot of excited squeaking from the workshop and Bruce said that they think they’ve got it,” Natasha said

“Sounds like something is happening,” Steve replied.

She chuckled. “That might be an understatement.”

They found Mouse Tony pushing googles back off his face and holding a welding torch near a cart with the Mystery Box on the top shelf. Steve guessed that he built his rig from spare parts in the workshop. Bruce was asleep, slumped over on the couch by the wall.

“Did you get any sleep?” Steve asked.

“Sleep is for the weak,” Mouse Tony replied without skipping a beat. “Hey, Brucie, up and at ‘em.”

“What? Oh, hey, Nat and Steve. What time is it?”

“Time to get this thing on the road,” Mouse Tony cackled. “We figured it out -- the problem is here, not there, you know, home. The Mystery Box is the source -- now I told you how my team was investigating an AIM lab and we found a Mystery Disk -- then it was switcheroo time.”

“We’re working on the theory that our Box and their Disk aren’t exactly portals --”

“No, they’re transporter technology,” Mouse Tony interrupted.

Steve suggested, “Like Star Trek?” 

Mouse Tony bounced up and down, his whiskers quivering. “Yes. Just like that. I like you.” He gave Steve a brilliant smile. “I scanned the disk at the same time that your Tony scanned the box, causing a weird chain reaction that jumped across the universes, instead of sending us to another AIM lab somewhere.”

“Tony here can use his AI from his home so we’re guessing that Tony might have access to FRIDAY -- we’ve been trying to contact Tony, but so far nothing.” Bruce yawned and stretched, then rubbed his eyes. “Tony has an idea that you might be able to help with that.”

“What do you need me to do?” Steve asked.

“Call Tony. He’ll hear you,” Mouse Tony said. 

Bewildered, Steve said, “But you weren’t able to get through -- why I would have better luck?”

Mouse Tony, black eyes wild under the googles on top of his head, dirt smudge on his cheek, and tail twitching, walked over to Steve. He put a paw on Steve’s hand. “Tony will hear you. I know that.”

Steve gulped hearing Mouse Tony’s overwhelming faith in some heretofore unknown special bond. But then, thinking about it, he did understand Tony when no one else did -- all they had to do was lock eyes and he would know what Tony was thinking. They did it when the team first formed during the Battle of New York, they worked like that during the time they fought Ultron. 

“Let’s do this,” Steve agreed. 

~~~~~

The Looney Tunes logic of the Scavengers’ universe was wearing on Tony. Tony had fought many weird and mundane people and aliens, but he still had so, so, so many questions. He’d seen the pictures of the team. 

How did Squawkeye carry his bow and shoot arrows? How did the repulsors work in Iron Mouse’s ear armor? 

Cartoon logic might mean a complete readjustment of how he was approaching this problem. Tony shook his head clear and sat up straighter at the work desk in the other Tony’s workshop. 

“Hey, I thought you might want this,” Cat Steve said softly, offering Tony a large mug of coffee.

Hot, black, and lots of it. Tony nearly cried from joy. “Thanks,” he said gratefully from the bottom of his heart. The small cups hadn’t been satisfying at all.

Cat Steve smiled shyly and sat down next to Tony. “How’s it going?”

“The working theory is that the problem started when I scanned the box and your Tony scanned the disk at the same time. I’m working on how to recreate that exact situation -- given that we can’t contact the other of us.”

“You’re brilliant, Tony -- you can do it,” Cat Steve encouraged.

Tony drank more of the nirvana coffee. “Look, no one’s told me anything -- but I’m guessing that the 6 pm deadline has something to do with you and your Tony. Am I right?”

Cat Steve ducked his head and looked down at the floor. Then he smiled fondly, clearly thinking of Mouse Tony. “He’s been planning this for a couple of months -- we’ve had to postpone a few times. He told the team that we were not to be interrupted tonight, no matter what happened. I’m not supposed to know any of this. It’s our official first date and he wants to show me the world. I would be happy to go on a walk in Central Park as long as it was with Tony.”

“Oh.” He should have guessed -- there was a framed picture of Iron Mouse and Captain Americat right there next to the computer. Tony was suddenly intensely jealous of the Iron Mouse he had never met. 

He had been developing some feelings for Steve recently that scared him. He hadn’t been ready for another relationship when he came back to the team. But it only took a few months to feel helplessly fluttery whenever Steve breathed the same air as he did. He didn’t like that “being in love like teenagers” feeling. He was too old for that and Steve was not a regular crush. Steve deserved the world -- the best seats at a Broadway show, reservations at the fanciest restaurant. He’d want to show off Steve to everyone -- let them see what a great guy he was.

“Ohhhhhhh,” Tony repeated as thoughts and feelings exploded through his mind.

“That’s why getting him back before 6 pm is very important -- Tony’s probably going out of his mind right now and it’s important to me that Tony gets what he wants.”

“Since you put it that way, let’s get a move on.”

Cat Steve’s eyes sparkled. “Tell me what you need --”

“What I need first is more coffee and a donut --”

Static fuzzed and crackled in the air as noise emitted from Tony’s helmet on the end of the table. Tony and Cat Steve exchanged a look and they both stared at the helmet. The static faded and Steve’s voice came through the comms. “Can you hear me, Tony?”

“Steve, yes, yes, where are you?” Tony nearly leapt for joy. But Cat Steve’s flicking tail and alert ears spoke for both of them.

“The compound. Iron Mouse has information he needs to send you.”

“Patch Squeakie through. He’s working on a deadline.”

Within minutes the Tonies and Bruces had worked out a plan to re-enact the exact same scenario that caused the universe switch the day before.

“Portals are much much easier,” Bunny Bruce said as Tony wheeled in a cart with the disk. “I get how those work --”

“Miniature wormholes,” Tony added.

“Exactly. This -- I don’t get this yet.”

Frankly, Tony had concluded that whatever happened was the fault of the reality warping cartoon logic of the Scavengers universe. His world had just been caught up in the crazy. “It’s not magic, at least.”

“Yes,” Bunny Bruce agreed.

Avengers and Scavengers gathered around their Mystery items in their Tony workshops. Tony turned to Cat Steve. “I’m usually right, so if it goes the way I planned, I’m going to blink out and you’re going to get your Tony back. Good luck with your plans and all that.”

Cat Steve pulled his cowl down, had the shield ready, as if he expected a very different result than Tony. “Thanks, Iron Man.”

“Countdown starts now,” Tony announced. 

Ten … nine …

If Cat Steve was like his Steve, maybe Tony should take this Steve out for a ride in one of the cars. Steve liked motorcycles, maybe he was a car guy too.

Three … two … one!

“Hit the scanner!” both Tonies shouted through the comm.

There was a sudden blinding light. Both teams appeared in a large empty grey room. Tony looked at Iron Mouse while Captain Americat sized up Steve. The Caps nodded at each other, clearly passing some secret Cap test. 

“What’s going on?” the Bruces both said. Tony’s Bruce did a double-take at seeing Bunny Bruce.

“More juice, we need more juice to get through the multiverse bridge,” Iron Mouse said directly to Tony.

“Squeakie is right,” Tony said.

Iron Mouse shot Tony a piercing look. Clearly he wasn’t keen on the Squeakie nickname.

“On a count of three, unibeam the carts,” Tony said to Iron Mouse.

“Wait,” Steve said. He laid his hand on the floor so that Iron Mouse could stand on his hand. He lifted Iron Mouse so that he had a better angle to hit the cart.

“Thanks, Cap!” Mouse Tony said.

“Okay.” Tony took a deep breath. “One. Two. Three.”

They unibeamed the carts at the same time. The disk and box lit up like Christmas trees and Tony heard a whooshing noise as the Avengers and Scavengers were swept back into their respective universes.

As soon as he knew he was back home, Tony ripped off the Pym Particle disk and returned to normal size. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked, putting a hand on Tony’s shoulder.

“It’s been a day,” Tony said. “What time is it?”

“3 pm -- they made the deadline with time to spare,” Steve said. 

“Going on their date.” Events had moved too fast for Tony to have completely digested what Captain Americat had said that morning. “Captain Americat -- he’s known as Steve Mouser. You should know that.”

Steve had an odd look on his face. “Hmm. A pun --”

Tony groaned. “You have no idea how very many, many puns. We should talk about it over coffee.” 

His heart leapt into his mouth as he waited a couple of seconds for Steve’s response. Steve took off his helmet and gloves and ran a hand through his hair to put it into place. 

Steve and Captain Americat, always prepared for anything, anytime.

“You know, I’d like that. But make it dinner. I can meet you in the lobby at 6.” Steve gave him a brilliant smile that made Tony’s heart thump.

Tony could make reservations at what’s-its-name, the place down by the river with the great steaks. Take the newest Audi. Make it a special date. 

“See you at six,” Steve said. “Don’t make it too fancy. I’d be fine with a walk in a park.”


End file.
